


Unconventional Means

by doreamu_san



Category: Guilty Gear
Genre: Established Relationship, Humor, M/M, One Shot, Short, Sweet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-21
Updated: 2019-10-21
Packaged: 2020-12-27 23:24:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,379
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21126974
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/doreamu_san/pseuds/doreamu_san
Summary: On a checklist of what constitutes a standard relationship, Ky is certain they tick exactly zero of the boxes. Though for these sorts of trivial matters, who needs such precedents anyway?Some people however, like a certain local marriage enthusiast, would argue otherwise.





	Unconventional Means

"Have you two considered getting married?"

The question is enough to cause Ky to immediately choke on his tea, his mind whirring frantically in an attempt to search for a suitable response whilst he coughed his lungs out.

Truthfully, he never had really considered marriage as an absolute necessary part of his life at all. He had previously pictured himself ideally settling down with a family of his own in the future, but it always became hard to imagine considering how his life had constantly been surrounded by hellish wars and political chaos.

He certainly didn’t think he would have become King of Illyria, or have a son just yet. Or even be around Sol as much to this day, but that was a rather complex topic that he still didn’t quite understand on its own.

"Well-” Ky started, and then stopped himself, because trying to explain that weddings were the least of his worries to a Valentine who was so overly enthusiastic about marriage that she would constantly wear her wedding dress everywhere was proving to be a difficult task. Besides, the last time the 'm' word was uttered in Elphelt's vicinity, the girl had become so utterly enthralled with the idea that she would not let the topic drop for the rest of that day. By the end of it, Ky could have recited the entire speech of the Catholic Church’s ‘Celebration of Matrimony’ off by heart.

Rather than that, he instead shot a look over to his right, giving a look that pretty much read _'do something.'_

Sol seemed equally perturbed by her inquiry, as if he was debating with himself whether to mildly shrug the question off or to quite literally erupt into flames.

“..Is this some kind of joke?" Sol ended up saying, only for Elphelt to simply giggle in response, somehow completely unfazed by his reaction.

"Of course not! I was just thinking of how you two have been together for a really long time. Isn't it natural that you'd want to tie the knot and make things official?"

_‘No,’ _ was the general shared unspoken response.

Ky wasn't very sure when the line between him feeling mildly able to tolerate Sol and actually wanting to seek out Sol for comfort had been crossed, but nevertheless it had been crossed at some point in time, so they didn't exactly have a timeframe for how long they had actually been together. And even if they had been together for a really long time as Elphelt had stated, throughout the entire course of their relationship Ky had never once felt the urge to get married.

"Look, let's just get this straight,” Sol irritably said after a couple of moments, his nails digging into the skin unhidden by his limiter, no doubt the first signs of annoyance. The conversation had barely even passed more than a few sentences and already Ky was mentally preparing for how to rapidly de-escalate the situation before things got too out of hand. “For the first few years nothing happened because someone was too busy having a stick shoved up his ass to even be considered attractive. The only people interested in the kid were either romanticising him to be some kind of fairy tale ‘knight-in-shining-armour’ or were only in it for his ass. And why the hell would I want to legally be tied to him for the rest of my life- ow, brat.” Sol snarled at his side.

“You’ll have to excuse him, he’s bad with words,” Ky gave a smile as he retracted his hand, the faintest sparks of electricity still fading into the air. “What Sol means is that in those times, it was difficult to consider matters such as love given that there was a war on our hands. All our efforts were devoted to improving everyone’s lives as a whole rather than focusing on our own personal ones, so given the circumstances, the overall rate of marriage in those years decreased significantly. Even now, everyone is still coping with the aftermath of the Crusades and helping to rebuild what was lost."

Elphelt pursed her lips together as if in deep thought, and it looked as if they were going to be spared from any more prying questions and Illyria Castle spared from the ever-increasing probability of being burnt to a crisp. “I see… but most people do eventually get married, even if it isn’t straight away.”

"Yeah well, I doubt me and Ky tend to follow the same lifestyle as other people. You don’t see many bounty hunters and Kings getting together," Sol stated, which kind of put how odd their situation was in retrospect.

"But I don't understand, even if you aren’t like other people, wouldn’t you want to get married just because of how special the ceremony is? Weddings are one of life's most beautiful events, it celebrates the deep love between two people! When you see your partner at the other end of the aisle, wearing the most perfect clothes for your sake only, won't it make your heart fill up with such joy and pride? That within the next few minutes, you'll be officially theirs and can show them off and say ‘yes, this person is mine and mine only~!’”

Imagining Sol having to be dressed in any kind of formal-wear would most likely require a lot of coaxing with alcohol, the coaxer in question to be wearing some sort of fire-proof protective gear, and possibly some blackmail. Even if he was somehow forced into a suit and tie, the sight would look incredibly strange and the man would probably tear it off within minutes.

Ky met Sol's eyes in a knowing silent agreement that such a situation was never going to happen or else all hell would break loose.

When it was clear things weren’t going her way, Elphelt pouted in defeat. "I really don't get what the problem is... aren't weddings supposed to be nice? If the problem is that you don’t want a public wedding in fear of what people may think, you could always have a private one…"

Even though her change in demeanour should have been a small victory, Ky couldn’t help but give her a sympathetic smile. She was only trying to suggest something positive for their relationship after all, and perhaps they were dismissing it a little too harshly. "Such a thing isn’t easy for us. However, your words have made me see things from another perspective, so I feel inclined to reconsider. I can't promise anything but we'll take your words into account."

Sol snorted. "Like hell we will."

"What, really?!" Elphelt jolted up onto her feet, a surge of excitement suddenly overcoming her. “I’m really glad! Though weddings do take a lot of time to plan, so you should really start deciding the venue and the guests and the theme before it gets too late-“

“In fact,” Ky interjected as politely as he could, “I think Sol and I would like to discuss it privately right now.

Sol stared at Ky. “Hang on, I never said anything about discussion-”

“We are going to discuss it,” Ky said with a tone of finality, giving Sol a pointed look before returning his gaze to Elphelt. “That is, if you will excuse us.”

“Oh, of course!” the girl beamed, already hurriedly making her way towards the door. “Please tell me as soon as you have decided! I will do my best to help you as much as I can.”

“Thank you. We’ll see you later at dinner.”

"Don't count on it," Sol called out after her, as Ky swiftly closed the door once she had gone. As soon he heard the click signalling the door was locked, Ky walked over to his seat and fell back onto the couch with relief. Despite the situation not being stressful, it certainly was a little mentally exhausting having to think about all these hypotheticals when he already had a lot of current issues to deal with.

“So, are we actually going to talk about it?” Sol asked. Ky shook his head.

“I didn’t plan on it, I just thought it would be nice if we had a little break.”

“Not bad, boy. Although it’s hardly a break if you don’t have any drinks lying about.”

Ky made a noise of half-disbelief and half-laughter. “A break is still a break, if you don’t want it, I’m just going to spend this time finishing off some legal documents in silence then.”

Working in silence would have been a pretty disappointing way to spend this time considering how this was meant to be a break, but Ky knew that Sol wouldn’t actually let him do that whilst he was around anyway.

“Tch,” Sol turned his head away in mock annoyance. “If married life means being forced to wait around for you to finish your paperwork, I want no part in it.”

“I wouldn’t force you to do such a thing even if we were married, I know you and Sin are more comfortable roaming freely around the world rather than being cooped up in here.”

Well, that and the fact that if Sin and Sol were in Illyria Castle for the majority of the day, Ky wouldn’t be able to concentrate in fear that either something very precious would be destroyed or that Sin would do something very gear-ish, prompting the entire castle staff to either attack or run away in fear. And in both of those situations, Ky was more so worried for the people and furniture rather than his own family, though that was due to the fact that Gears happened to be a lot more durable than the former.

“So I guess married life isn’t very different to now, huh.” Sol muttered.

If Ky had to really think about it, they weren’t that different compared to how an actual married couple would act. Granted, there were some very untypical moments such as when they’d spar with one another for practice (which really was just a fancy excuse for beating each other up regularly), but there were also some surprisingly domestic moments. One of the most peaceful things they would do is that they would sit on the couches in the castle’s study, with Ky’s head delved deep into a book and Sol’s head resting on Ky’s lap. The first time it happened, Ky had been reading in the room by himself only for Sol to barge in and make himself comfortable, which just so happened to be by resting himself on Ky’s legs. Initially, it had been very inconvenient considering how there was now an added weight on his lap preventing him from moving anywhere, but over time Ky had found the set-up very therapeutic, his hands often unconsciously stroking through Sol’s hair as he read. As well as that, Sol often brought interesting discussion to the table that Ky had never taken the time to consider before, sometimes resulting in heated philosophical debates, leading to an overall very enjoyable experience.

Regardless, the only new thing an actual wedding would provide would be an official recognition of their status as a couple, only to likely be proceeded by an outcry from all the royal advisors who had tried to get Ky married off to female suitors for status, and a grand, royal crowning ceremony of-

Ky quickly attempted to suppress a laugh, which caused Sol to eye him questioningly.

"Considering how I am the King of Illyria, if we ever hypothetically did get married, wouldn't that make you the King Consort..?"

Sol hesitated briefly, as if he had to pause to try to work out where exactly Ky was going with this. “A fancy title makes no difference.”

“But the way people would suddenly start bowing to you and being excessively polite to you would.”

Sol let out a short laugh. "I thought you were trying to protect people, not set them up to be targets for me.”

So it was settled that they wouldn’t actually be able to have an official, proper wedding. Which was fine, because Ky was pretty sure Sol didn’t mind (though then again, Sol didn’t mind much in life), and in fact neither did he, so there wasn’t any real problem. Even if they were considering the matter under different conditions where things would be a lot safer, Ky doubted they would have chosen to have one. Though their situations had changed throughout time, the fact that they have stayed by each other’s side hadn’t, and as long as Sol was willing to let Ky into his heart to love and support him, then Ky didn’t need anything more than that.

Ky’s fingers absent-mindedly brushed against the Magnolia Éclair, the sword immediately flaring up in response. He blinked at it for a couple of seconds, before a thought registered into his mind and he pulled it up from where it was resting at the side of the couch, his fingers gripped onto the hilt.

"Perhaps we should go outside and get a breath of fresh air then?"

Sol eyed the sword thoughtfully, but didn’t move an inch from his spot. "How many rounds?"

“Until you plead mercy,” Ky replied, giving a wry smile.

“Yeah right. I’ll be surprised if you manage to get me down even once.”

“Is that a challenge? If I do, then I expect a free back massage.”

“What am I, your personal massage therapist?”

Ky concluded it was a pretty dramatic overreaction just at the idea of one massage. “It is a common stereotype that married couples will do whatever they can to make their partner feel as comfortable as possible, and one of the methods in which they can do that is to give their significant other back massages. The fact that I’m betting you on one and not demanding a complimentary one daily from you shouldn’t be too unreasonable.”

Sol seemed to mull on this. “Fine,” he said, the Junkyard Dog already in his hands. “But if I win, you’re babysitting Sin for the weekend though. Afterall, married couples are meant to take turns looking after their kids.”

“Then it’s a deal,” Ky smiled, the first crackles of lightning already coming off his sword. “Now let’s get going.”

**Author's Note:**

> Something a bit sweet in the midst of Goretober. I'd like to first thank all the support I've been receiving. I really appreciate every person who takes time out of their day to read something I wrote. I never expected to ship anything at all because I'm not that sort of person, but I greatly became passionate about these two, so I hope to keep writing about them for a long time.
> 
> Hopefully you'll be pleased to know I am working on way longer, more *special* fics that have been already drafted. If you check out my AO3 profile [here](https://archiveofourown.org/users/doreamu_san/profile), on my page is a list of my W.I.Ps that I regularly update. So if you would like to know a rough idea of what the next fic will be, or when it will be released, please consider checking out my page!


End file.
